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The current paper results from a research developed in the metropolitan area of João Pessoa – PB that has the objective of investigating the socio-environmental NGOs performance in the last decades and the ways it has contributed to social legitimacy of environmental problems. Theoretically, the article was based on local literature, on a dialogue with Political Ecology and the authors debating about the resurgence of Civil Society in the last decades of 20th century. The research adopted a qualitative methodological design to explore the experience of eight local socio-environmental NGOs through nine semi-structured interviews with representative members of these organizations. The interviews focused on the history of NGOs constitution, the actions taken, the relations established with other social spheres, their organizational and financial strategies, the perception they have on local environmental problems, the difficulties faced in order to survive and what they think about local environmental culture. The results showed that the entities of this kind in the metropolitan area still are few and small and surviving, mostly, from voluntary work and contributions of their own members. However, in spite of the problems they have on a daily basis, these organizations have played a fundamental role in regional public life. They were able to do so through the defense of environmental causes, the protection of nature and the quality of life of local population, the broadening of public sphere, the educational and cultural diffusion of environmental issues and the progressive advance of political culture and democratic participation.