TERRITORIES IN DISPUTE IN ACRE: NEO-EXTRACTIVISM, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, AND SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS IN CONTEMPORARY AMAZONIA

Abstract

This article analyzes contemporary territorial conflicts in the state of Acre, seeking to understand how the expansion of neo-extractivism, economic activities, and geopolitical interests intensifies disputes involving indigenous peoples, traditional communities, the State, the business sector, and socio-environmental movements. The research employs a qualitative, bibliographic, and documentary approach, grounded in the frameworks of the coloniality of power, Latin American political ecology, and decolonial theories. It hypothesizes that Acre, historically marked by disputes over the Amazon rainforest, has become a strategic space for conflicts between environmental preservation and the economic exploitation of natural resources. The article discusses how contemporary themes such as mining, agribusiness, logging, the carbon market, and environmental protection produce different narratives about development and territorial sovereignty. It also analyzes the centrality of indigenous peoples and traditional communities in these conflicts, highlighting how their territorialities and ways of life remain pressured by global economic interests. It is concluded that territorial conflicts in Acre reveal the persistence of colonial structures in the Brazilian Amazon, even when disguised by contemporary discourses of progress, sustainability, and economic development.