ISA was established on April 22, 1994, by a group of people with a significant professional background and experiences in the struggle for social and environmental rights. ISA has incorporated the material and non-material heritage amassed during the 15 years’ experience of several knowledgeable organizations in the indigenous rights issues in Brazil, such as the Ecumenical Documentation and Information Center’s Brazilian Indigenous Peoples Program, and the Indigenous Rights Nucleus (NDI) of Brasília.

By the late 80s, a series of facts and processes marked a period of intense interactions between different organized segments of Brazilian civil society in the social and environmental venues: the process of formulation and approval of collective social and environmental rights within the body of the Federal Constitution (1987-88); the Peoples of the Forest Campaign (1989); the Meeting of the Indians in Altamira (Pará) to protest against a major official plan for the hydroelectric development of the Xingu river basin (1989) and the establishment of the Brazilian NGO and Social Movements Forum as a preparation for the Summit of the Earth Meeting of 1992 (1990) and the United Nations Conference (1992).

The people who came together to formulate, establish and implement Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), between 1993 and 1995, had a decisive, marked participation in the idealization and implementation of the above mentioned processes.