Bioversity International, the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) are carrying out a project that aims to identify duplication in existing banana genebanks.
Under the project, a field collection site is being established in French Polynesia with support from Bioversity International that will allow the banana plants to grow side by side and allow curators and taxonomists to better understand banana diversity in the Pacific Region.
30 March 2012: Highlighting the challenge of conserving edible bananas, which do not have seeds, Bioversity International is participating in a project that seeks to protect varieties of banana. 
The project is being carried out in conjunction with the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), and is part of a global effort to conserve banana genetic diversity and promote their use through the MusaNet network coordinated by Bioversity International.
According to Bioversity International, curators conserve bananas through issue culture plantlets in test tubes and cannot observe the plants, they are therefore unable to confirm or refute identification information, and are instead left with local names and information provided at the time of collection. Local names of banana species vary widely across the region and it is difficult to identify duplicates in the genebank collection.
To combat these limitations, a regional field collection site for bananas is being established in French Polynesia. At this site, curators will grow the genebank plants side-by-side to identify which samples are identical, and which are separate species. The exercise will also help taxonomists better classify varieties into groups. Bioversity International is a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). [Bioversity International Press Release]