The World Monuments Fund (WMF) on Thursday released its 2016 World Monuments Watch list, calling for the preservation of 50 cultural heritage sites at risk in 36 countries, including some 30 small wooden buildings in Tokyo's Tsukiji district.

The buildings came into existence after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and survived the U.S. bombing attacks on the capital in World War II.

"The relocation of the Tsukiji fish market ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games warns of redevelopment pressures for some of the last remaining markers of Tokyo's historic urban architecture," the New York-based nonprofit organization said.

"Early 20th-century architecture in Tsukiji is included on the 2016 Watch to lend international support to the efforts of local architects and property owners to advocate for preservation-minded planning for the protection of the city's heritage," it said.

The WMF has issued the list of cultural heritage sites that are at risk and should be subjected to early preservation measures every two years since 1996.

The 2016 list also includes Nepal's cultural heritage sites destroyed by a devastating earthquake in April.

In Japan, the WMF previously selected cultural heritage sites in Kyoto and in the northeastern city of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, which was badly affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.