Ordenamento Territorial: Neo-developmentalism and the struggle for territory in the lower Brazilian Amazon

In this paper, I explore the tensions and conflicts arising from the territorial reorganization of western Para state in the Brazilian Amazon associated with the paving of the Santarem-Cuiaba highway (BR-163). I argue that the set of forces, techniques and devices that constitute Ordenamento Territorial, or Territorial Ordering, re-territorialize the region with the spatialized logic of sustainable development, constituting a 'green grab', or a new strategy of governance over not only territory but also territoriality - the ways of life of Amazonia's inhabitants. Analyzing the formation of the Movement in Defense of Life and Culture of the Arapiuns River, I explore how social movements are shifting their strategies in relation to these new technologies of ordering.