Although many plants grow along Mount Kinabalu's summit trail and are easily accessible to climbers, all known populations of the species grow within Kinabalu National Park and so their collection is illegal. In 1997, Charles Clarke suggested a revised assessment of Conservation Dependent based on this. Clarke writes that N. villosa has a secure future, although he adds that climbers have had a significant impact on populations of the species growing along the summit trail, with the number of plants having declined in recent years. A 2002 study found 1180 individual N. villosa growing in 11 plots, each measuring 0.01 hectares, at elevations of between and on Mount Kinabalu. This number constituted 94% of the pitcher plants recorded from the plots, the rest being N. × kinabaluensis.