
By juxtaposing strategies implemented by seringueiros in the state of Acre in the 1980s in defense of the forest threatened by land grabbers and farmers, and those implemented by ribeirinhos in the Xingu River, in defense of the right to return to territories expropriated by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, I identify some similarities: the ability to emerge from invisibility and marginalization and be recognized as collective subjects of rights; the articulation between a community based social organization and the alliance with a diversity of external actors; and the defense of their ontologies and ways of life combined with the incorporation of external discourses and dynamics. By highlighting how social movements were able to build innovative historical alternatives for the recognition and defense of their territories, I draw attention to the absence of legal norms and administrative procedures that ensure the recognition, demarcation and protection of these territories.