Musa campestris

Across the North Borneo coast river basin, inclusive of Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei, about 24% of forest cover has been lost between 2001 and 2018 (GFW 2019). Between 2001 and 2017, 1.85 Mha of industrial plantation was established in Malaysian Borneo and industrial oil palm development has been identified as the major driver of the area's deforestation (Gaveau et al. 2016, 2018). However, the impact of deforestation on members of the Musa genus is somewhat difficult to quantify: while clear-felling or land conversion is likely to be detrimental to the species, wild bananas spring up in transient, often man-made, habitats and thus may benefit from human disturbance to some extent (Simmonds 1962). Musa campestris, specifically, was found to be abundant in a large square area of several hundred acres in which primary forest had recently been logged (Häkkinen 2004); on this basis, it is thought that industrial-scale land conversion is more likely to constitute a threat to the species than smaller-scale disturbance.

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). There are two M. campestris germplasm accessions held by the Bioversity International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC) in Belgium; one of these accessions was collected from a wild population in Malaysia, and the other from a wild population in Brunei (Ruas et al. 2017, Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2019). Five botanical gardens are listed as sites of ex situ conservation for this species (BGCI 2019). This species has been collected from, or in close proximity to, multiple protected areas across its range, including the Lambir Hills and Taman Negara Banjaran Crocker National Parks, so passive conservation is presumed in these localities (Protected Planet 2019); it is unclear whether active management is apparent in any of these areas.