Modernising development disembeds social life from the local context, contributing to the separation of man from nature. At a global scale, that dichotomy has proven disastrously counterproductive regarding consequences of naturalsocial phenomena, and has generated major social and economic disparities. In Bolivia, the government, despite a radical environmentalist discourse, bases its economy on continued and scaled-up extractivism. This thesis explores how indigenous peoples in the Bolivian Amazon imagine and negotiate development that counters the dichotomy. It contributes with insights on how they, through their daily livelihood practices, and social and political activities, suggest an alternative development for Bolivia, while creating places that remain distinctively indigenous. I argue that the lowland peoples, historically and today, have pursued development directions that would ensure their own control with socio-economic matters, and that their proactive efforts can be understood as practised decoloniality. They propose a development direction diametrically opposite that of the contemporary government. Where the government aims to centralise the state and integrate lowland indigenous territories in their national development plans, the lowland peoples, supported by their allies, follow a vision that include local management of resources and self-governance. Both apply a discourse that involves indigeneity and plurinationality, and both attempt to mobilise anti-colonial sentiments. Three articles each address a distinctive type of claim of lowland peoples to land and self-determination. The first presents a historical claim to land, the second addresses a political claim to access decision-making and the third explores a claim based on identity, to determine development locally. The claims extend way beyond the local in that they suggest a different organisation of the state, and thus its development. Empirically, the thesis is based on my work as a researcher and development practitioner in collaboration with people in three indigenous territories in the beni department. During longer-term and return visits, I applied qualitative methods of data-collection that included a wide range of observational and interactional approaches, exploring the complex relations between people and their environment. Theoretically, the thesis draws upon critical debates within development research, including that of post-development. Placed in the intersection between culture, power, history and nature, it addresses core, theoretical orientations of political ecology. The conceptualisation of power and agency inspired by the Latin American decoloniality-school, within this political ecology framework, is a distinct contribution of this thesis. In a larger perspective, the aim with the thesis is to contribute to finding answers on how to promote human practices that do not undermine ecological processes and systems, hoping the findings can inspire the efforts of researchers to suggest relations to nature that can oppose the nature - society dichotomy in contemporary conservation and development debates.