The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative rural land project which, even though it is still young, can serve as an example for the region as a whole, and to describe the development of this project from its origins and pilot phase to its implementation at national level. The project in question is the Rural Land Plan (PFR) for Côte d’Ivoire. The project activities implemented to date have been supported by a vast amount of research, and have resulted in the drafting, as part of rural land tenure legislation, of a law which was adopted in December 1998 by the National Assembly.