This paper discusses about the Projeto de Assentamento Extrativista (PAE) Santa Maria Auxiliadora, located in Humaita (AM). We talk about the public policy of rural settlements and the challenges of mediation between differents rationalities in the perception and use of the land and nature. We conducted a qualitative research with the techniques of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis. We could see the dilemma of Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (Incra), which under the pressures of the national land policy, aimed at quantitative performance, should lead the implementation of PAE in order to meet the peculiarities of the community. We observed that the planned settlement is reconfigured with the dynamics of community life. The "settlers" are important agents of reframing and territorialization that space.
tradicional populations of Amazon; rural settlements; rural politics