The article discusses the subject of recognition of traditional knowledge in the environmental context of social movements and territorialization of public action which usually follows a claim for territory which belongs to social groups. This claim is expressed as a global claim which comprehends the statute of traditional populations, land use, the means of production which they develop, their means of collective organization and the recognition of their identity as a culture. Therefore, the paper presents a synthesis of the debates which follow that claim of recognition within the Brazilian Amazon, and the challenges to which this acknowledgement shall respond, in special the bonds between the territory of possession and the culture of these populations; between this culture and their means of land occupation and exploration; the social and economic efficacy and the means of production that they have been able to understand. This claim questions the ability of academic knowledge to question once more the man-nature relation that have inspired them. Before such challenge, Edgar Morin’s project finds all relevance and allows understanding whichever is utopic in propositions such as the Extractivist Reserves. Finally, we refer to the differences between green and brown environmentalization into consideration natural resources as heritage resources.
