Musa boman

Significant logging and conversion of forest to palm oil, agricultural and mining land use is apparent in lowland areas, with logging activities increasingly visible in more montane regions (S. Janssens pers. comm. 2020, S. Carpentier pers. comm. 2021). The burning of forests by local people when hunting is also contributing to the degradation of forests (S. Carpentier pers. comm. 2021). Between 2001 to 2018, the forest cover of the Aitape-Lumi area of Sandaun province decreased by 3.5%, while in the Vanimo-Green River area, forest cover decreased by 5.3%, with the vast majority of this loss taking place in the vicinity of Bewani (GFW 2019). This is partly driven by shifting agriculture (GFW 2019) but a large-scale threat is also presented by timber concessions and oil palm plantations. The Vanimo timber permit covers an area stretching from the Indonesian border in the west to Aitape in the east and south to the foot of the Bewani-Torricelli mountain chain (FAO 2001). Within the area described, the Bewani Oil Palm Plantations Limited company is involved in the development of 100,000 hectares of land into large oil palm plantations through a Special Purpose Agriculture and Business Lease (SABL) as part of a government scheme (Gabriel et al. 2017). The species is not known from any protected areas so is susceptible to future expansion of these operations: although various attempts have been made to revoke SABL licenses, efforts to mitigate commodity-driven deforestation in Papua New Guinea have only had limited success (Harris 2018). Research into threats in action is necessary to quantify the impact of shifting agriculture and the likelihood, and scale, of plantation encroachment.

The genus Musa is listed in Annex I of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) which aims to guarantee sustainable agriculture and food security through the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, as well as ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use (FAO 2009). One M. boman germplasm accession of wild origin is held by the Bioversity International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC) in Belgium, and another is held by the Embrapa Mandioca e Fruticultura Tropical in Brazil but the details of the accession are limited (Ruas et al. 2017, Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2019). Several seed collections made in separate localities in Sandaun province are held by Meise Botanic Gardens (S. Janssens pers. comm. 2020, Kallow et al. 2020). However, the species is not known to be represented in living collections in botanic gardens (BGCI 2019) and the species is not known from any protected areas (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN 2019). As such, gathering of wild material for ex situ conservation in living collections remains a priority.