Musa ingens

New Guinea's rainforests are being logged, cleared, and converted at a rapid rate due to timber extraction, subsistence agriculture, and expansion of industrial agriculture, with a further threat posed by the mining industry. Between 1972 and 2002, Papua New Guinea lost more than five million hectares of forest; since 2002, a further 2% of the country's primary forest has been lost (Butler 2006, Mongabay 2019). However, most collections of Musa ingens have taken place within the Central Range Montane rain forests ecoregion. These montane rain forests are generally undisturbed because of low population densities and traditional lifestyles, although in some heavily populated highland valleys, local deforestation is apparent. Logging concessions have been granted for sizable tracts of land in the ecoregion and the threat of increased access via new roads is a significant future concern (WWF 2019). However, it is considered unlikely that any of the threats listed will affect the conservation status of this species in a short time.

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). Musa ingens has not been collected from any protected areas; however, its range overlaps with multiple protected areas and it is suspected to occur within some of these (Protected Planet 2019). Two botanical gardens are listed as sites of ex situ conservation for the species (BGCI 2019) but no germplasm accessions are held (Ruas et al. 2017, Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2019). Gathering of wild germplasm material for ex situ conservation in seed banks is recommended.