Pitcairnia cantuoides

The department of Santa Cruz alone, where this species occurs, represents 75% of all land-cover change that has occurred in Bolivia, mainly driven by sugar and cotton demand in the 1970's and more recently by soy (Killeen et al. 2007). The Rio Grande Valles Cruceños Natural Integrated Management Area, where this species is known to occur, is subject to extensive cattle grazing and agricultural forest clearance. An increase in the protection level of this site has been proposed (Fundación Natura Bolivia 2007). The species is also known to occur within the Monteagudo Watershed Protection Area. However, outside the protected areas in the southern Andean Yungas ecoregion, habitat loss and general degradation due to human activities persist (Mee 1998). Habitat is burned for growing cash crops, and this has increased, along with logging, due to intensified road-building (Collar et al. 1992). The species also occurs within the Bolivian montane dry forests, which are among one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world (Portillo-Quintero and Sánchez-Azofeifa 2009). Consisting of large areas of degraded land, and the region is heavily impacted by urban expansion and the associated conversion to agriculture (Fjeldså and Mayer 1996).

The species has been recorded to occur in the Rio Grande Valles Crucenos Natural Integrated Management Area and the Monteagudo Watershed Protection Area (WDPA 2020). The seeds of this species are not currently held by any seed bank (Genesys 2023) and there are no records of ex situ collections worldwide (BGCI 2023).