Cryptocoryne zaidiana

The northern subpopulation is in reasonably intact forest but oil palm plantation is now within 1 km of the site. The southern subpopulation is in an area where the forest was cleared in the 1980s and converted to rice fields, but in 2005 was described as “earmarked for oil palm plantation” (Ipor et al. 2005). In the past (and possibly to this day), the river was fished by “mansai”, a method using a round net to scoop up fish from the shallow. This apparently disturbed the substrate, with a potentially damaging effect on this species.

The habitats and sites where this species occurs are threatened by factors which affect all plants occurring in flowing water bodies in the region, notably forest clearance, urbanisation, agricultural intensification and the secondary effects of these factors, particularly increased turbidity, pollution and casual habitat degradation.

The species may be vulnerable to commercial collection.

There are no conservation actions in place specifically for this species and it is not known from any protected areas. There is an urgent need to survey all known populations to derive an up-to-date assessment of the conservation status of known populations.