Land changes are determined by a complex web of biophysical andsocio-economic factors that interact in time and space, in different historicaland geographical contexts, creating different trajectories of change. It ispeople’s response to economic opportunities mediated by institutional factorsthat drives changes. In this paper we discuss how to incorporate suchinstitutional land tenure categories in land changemodels. Our hypothesis isthat this is an essential step in the direction ofconstructing regional models torepresent the heterogeneity of actors and processes. We implemented theconceptual proposal using the TerraME modeling Environment. Through acase study we analyze how the existence of different rules of territory useaffects the landscape dynamics at the regional level.