This thesis aims at identifying and understanding the main factors underlying the formation of the situations of vulnerability and social resilience among farmers living in the Alt o Guaporé region in the state of Mato Grosso,  in relation to  the contemporary  environmental changes. Within the theoretical framework developed here, reactions or adjustments to these processes, mobilized and translated by the notion of adaptive capacity and coping are not conditioned to forecasts or future behavioral responses, but  are determined  by the ability that individuals or groups  have  to mobilize  or  transform  the  necessary  mechanisms  that  allow  them  to  bypass and/or Overcome  the  barriers  that  expose  them  to  a  risk  situation.  This  implies  recognizing that initiatives  that  seek  to  ensure  family  subsistence  are  the  objective  result  of  the  action linked to the everyday experience in the interaction that occurs between  the natural and social systems and requires the existence of  individuals an/or collective processes.  Thus,  taking as our starting  point  the  identification  of  the  main  subsistence  strategies  mobilized  by  the farmers of this region, it was possible to identify the main social and / or natural factors that constrain  or even  facilitate  the  production  of  answers  to  contemporary  environmental changes.  As  a result,  it  was  possible  to  determine  the  aspects  that  characterize  the vulnerabilities  as well as to improve  the coping ability  and the adaptability of farmers in Alto Guaporé,  in  a  scenario of deep  uncertainty  and  rapid  transformation  of  the  factors  that integrate the natural and social systems. Thus, this thesis mainly deals with the construction of strategies  mobilized  by  farmers living  in  this  region  to  ensure  family  subsistence.  For  this purpose,  65  interviews  with farmers  were  held  in  five  different  cities,  but  in  two  different contexts: that mobilized by farmers who are located in areas close to urban centers,  within no greater distances  than  40 km and  that  afield, between 50 and 100 km  from  urban perimeters. The study  revealed  that some aspects of the functioning  of the  institutional framework create the possibility of mobilizing a greater diversity of arrangements and forms of production by incorporating the first group, compared to those subjected to greater distances. However, this proximity  relationship  does  not qualitatively  change  their  situation  of  vulnerability  and resilience. Empirical evidences were identified,  which show that because of the uniqueness of the  elements  of  the  natural  system and  the  past  experience  of  families  in  a  socioeconomic context, they differ substantially in terms of access capacity and mobilizing ability of the main factors  that shape such competence and exerts an  influence that modifies the factors that may expose  them  to  the  risks  and dangers  that  arise  from  changes  in  the  environment  in  their manner  of  ensuring  social  and material  reproduction.  Thus,  it  is  possible  to  assert  that  the conditions  of the social and institutional factors exert a major influence on the generation of situations  that  may  involve  a weakness  or  an  inability  to  cope  or  adapt  to  contemporary environmental changes.