Like many fruit-eating pigeons, the pink-necked green pigeon is thought to be an important disperser of fruit seeds in forests and woodlands. The grinding gizzard was thought to mean the species was entirely a seed predator instead of a seed disperser but studies of closely related species have shown that not every bird crop contains grinding stones and some seeds could pass through, and the same is likely to be true of this species. The species is thought to be one of those responsible for helping the return of many of the Ficus species to the islands of Krakatoa after the obliteration of the original island in a volcanic eruption. It may not have been responsible for the first shrubby fig species, which may have been carried by generalists such as bulbuls, but once some fruiting figs had established on the island it could have been responsible for both bringing new species of Ficus to the islands and then moving the seeds between the islands. Its flight time to the islands of Krakatoa has been estimated at 48 minutes, far shorter than the estimated seed retention time in its gut of 60 to 480 minutes.