Dyckia secunda

At least 50% of the Caatinga has been either completely converted from its native vegetation or modified in a major way by human activities (i.e., the second/third most degraded ecosystem in Brazil) (Da Silva 2001, Leal et al. 2005). Vegetation remnants are distributed in different sized fragments. Both localities of collection are now cultivated/managed areas of medium human footprint (Sanderson et al. 2002). A high proportion of the Caatinga is under high human pressure. Unsustainable timber extraction for fuel, clearance for pastures, overgrazing, slash and burn agriculture, "Sertanjos" (conversion of remnant vegetation to new and short lived crops), desertification, extensive and uncontrolled fires and, more recently, cotton and sugar cane cultivation are all playing critical roles in the nearly complete destruction of these important regional ecosystems (Da Silva 2001, Leal et al. 2005).

This species was not collected within any protected area and less than 1% of the ecoregion is protected in parks or reserves (Da Silva 2001). Filho and Tabarelli (2006) warn that some endemic Bromeliads of the Atlantic forest with less than six subpopulations will only survive if the fragments containing the last subpopulations are declared as protected. Many narrowly endemic species are reported from the genus Dyckia but this genus deserves special attention because of the elevated number of species, many of them poorly known and usually with overlapping diagnostic features and frequently represented in herbaria by only a single leaf and part of the inflorescence (Versieux and Wendt 2007). The genus Dyckia is in urgent need of revision (Martinelli et al. 2008). Field surveys must be conducted in the localities of historical collections and in potentially suitable areas to define the range and the population size. Samples of seed should be collected as an ex situ conservation measure.