Musa schizocarpa

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, the specific 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. schizocarpa has been observed growing along logging tracks and in disturbed areas (Argent 1976, Streimann, L, #NGF39469). Further research into threats to the species may beneficial to better understand how the species responds to disturbance and to identify whether any threats, named or unidentified, pose a more significant risk.

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 23 M. schizocarpa germplasm accessions of wild origin held worldwide. 13 are held by the Bioversity International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC) in Belgium, six by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), South Johnstone in Australia, two by the Centre africain de recherche sur bananes et plantains (CARBAP) in Cameroon, and one by each of the Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IFTR/GDAAS) in China, and the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) in Uganda (Ruas et al. 2017, Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2019). Two botanical gardens are listed as sites of ex situ conservation for this species (BGCI 2019). This species has been collected from within, or in close proximity to, the 15.02 km² Mt. Kaindi Wildlife Management Area and its range overlaps with multiple protected areas (Protected Planet 2019); if it occurs in any of these, passive conservation is presumed, but it is not known whether active management is apparent.