This International Workshop on making land right more secure brought together some 80 people from different parts of West Africa to consider the results of recent research and practical experience in the area of land tenure security. Over a three day meeting, researchers, decision-makers, leaders of farmers’ organisations and elected councillors got to grips with the notion of tenure security and debated new approaches which might improve the situation for rural producers. These edited papers show why the issue of tenure security had come to the fore in the economic and institutional context of the 1990s. Characterised by economic liberalisation, structural adjustment, democratisation and administrative decentralisation, this period marked a clear break with the post-Independence situation. With the advent of globalisation, further wide-ranging changes are appearing on the horizon. It is therefore all the more essential to work out appropriate rules governing competition for land. Negotiations between the State and farmers’ organisations, some examples of which were discussed during the workshop, are leading to more democratic practices involving civil society organisations and experts in the debate on agriculture and land tenure.