A number of organisations in Amazonia, Brazil, exist to fight for land rights for the rural poor. This paper described the actions of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement, which identified land held illegally by large-scale landlords and arranged for landless families to settle the land. The usual process was that families would first live in a large camp and work collectively until they gained title and could choose how to use the land in the long term. Many opted to form co-operatives which could undertake large-scale enterprises like tree planting. A major challenge to these schemes were the many legal and economic incentives for small-scale farmers to sell their plots as soon as possible.