Musa serpentina

The primary threat to this species is the continued fragmentation of its mixed deciduous forest habitat, as documented by Swangpol and Somana (2011). The species is limited to the Kayah-Karen montane rain forests ecoregion, as delineated by Olson et al. (2001). Although the ecoregion is considered to be fairly intact, this is largely the result of extensive protected area coverage; outside of these areas, about a third of the forests in the ecoregion have been cleared or degraded (Wikramanayake and Carpenter 2001). The species does not occur in protected areas and it is therefore vulnerable to the impacts of shifting agriculture, and increasing pressure to convert forest into more intensive agricultural land, commercial logging concessions and urban areas, driven by projected population growth in the region (Wikramanayake and Carpenter 2001, Trisurat et al. 2010). 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). This species has been observed to grow in highly disturbed habitats (Swangpol and Somana 2011); 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). The species is not known from any protected areas, although it occurs in close proximity to the 6,222 km² Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries World Heritage Site (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN 2020). It is not known to be conserved ex situ elsewhere (Ruas et al. 2017, BGCI 2020, Genesys Global Portal on Plant Genetic Resources 2020). As such, gathering of wild germplasm material for ex situ conservation from extant wild plants is a conservation priority.