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Shea parklands are a human construction carried out under certain conditions of land management and population density. While global demand for shea butter is on the rise, the state of the parklands is mixed and often on the decline. In Northern Benin, there is a clear discrepancy between the interests of the men in charge of tree management and the women who use the fruit but do not have the power to take decisions about the maintenance and regeneration of the parklands. In addition to this gender inequality, the evolution of the representations pertaining to the tree contributes, along with other factors, to the neglect of shea parklands.