Musa hirta

In Sarawak, about 24% of tree cover has been lost between 2001 and 2018. However, the area of Sarawak to which the species is native is quite sparsely populated (Lee 1965); restricting this analysis to the native range depicted by Häkkinen (2004), tree cover loss across the same time is about 10–15% (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, Gaveau et al. 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). Felling of trees along narrow stretches of roadside may actually provide suitable habitat for some Musa species (Kiew 1987) and M. hirta has been observed growing along roadsides (Hirano & Hotta #37). 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). This species has been collected in close proximity to the Batang Ai and Hose Mountains National Parks, and the native range depicted by Häkkinen (2004) overlaps with both of these protected areas, as well as the large protected areas of Lanjak-Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary in Malaysia and Betung Kerihun National Park in Indonesia (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN 2019), from where the species is reported to occur (K. Meekiong pers. comm. 2021); if the species does occur in these areas, it is not clear that active management is practised, but passive conservation is presumed. The species is not known to be represented in ex situ conservation efforts (Ruas et al. 2017, BGCI 2019, Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2019). As such, gathering of wild germplasm material for ex situ conservation from extant wild plants is a conservation priority.