Parakou Meeting on Shea

On Monday, February 9, 2026, a meeting on shea was held in Parakou. It was a workshop organized by the AGK about women's land rights.

The main objective of the workshop was to find solutions to the various problems related to land tenure, especially regarding the areas where women carry out the harvesting.

Our colleague Mireille, head of the Nikarit project, attended on behalf of OAN International as an organization playing an important role within the shea sector in Benin.

For the launch of the project, a structure called FARMELINE was involved, created in Ghana in 2013 with the aim of increasing farmers' productivity in Ghana, Togo and Benin. This organization carried out a survey in which 4,806 fields were identified. First they visited the women harvesters, who guided them to their working areas. Based on the research, they developed a tool capable of recognizing shea trees. With this tool they identified 91,816 trees through surveys of 7,050 women, of whom 2,000 were in Benin.

According to the results, 37% of the land is managed by men, 27% by women and 22% by the community. However, the survey had limitations and did not take into account all the necessary parameters, such as young trees, productive or non-productive trees, or the distinction between male and female trees. Nor did it consider the actual ownership of the land, and only women were surveyed, even though men are also involved.

Afterwards, a Ugandan lawyer gave a presentation on the situation of land tenure in shea-producing countries.

Next, group work was carried out around four main topics:

1. Land tenure (access to land)

Since ancient times, in most African countries the inheritance of land has been reserved exclusively for male children. It is considered that daughters will marry and therefore do not need land, since it would benefit another family. The work was carried out together with the representative of the emperor of Nikki and several women, with the aim of reflecting on how to correct this injustice and ensure that daughters are treated on equal terms with sons. It was noted that the situation is beginning to improve and that in some families daughters already receive the same treatment. In addition, they committed to continue the advocacy work to achieve widespread equality.

2. Rights over the trees

There was a debate about which trees women have the right to harvest from and what problems are associated with harvesting shea nuts.

Women may harvest:

• On land belonging to their husbands.
• On community land.
• In authorized parks and forests, respecting forestry measures, including gallery forests.
• On private land with the owners' authorization.

Among the problems identified, the following stand out:

• Conflicts that can escalate to serious confrontations when a woman enters a plot without authorization to harvest.
• Risk of animal attacks when accessing parks without permission.
• Domestic violence because some women prioritize harvesting over farming work. Some men, in reaction, cut down trees or even bury the nuts to prevent harvesting.

3. Access to credit and financing

The procedures for women to access credit were analyzed:

• They must organize into certified groups or clusters.
• It is necessary to have signed purchase contracts in place beforehand for the shea butter or the nuts.

The women pointed to disorder in the price of the nuts and the lack of a market for the butter as the main problems. They were advised to focus on the quality of both the nuts and the butter, since in previous years some major clients lost confidence due to the low quality of the product and now prefer to buy nuts to produce their own butter.

4. Digital mapping and next steps

The improvement of the application being used was announced, incorporating all the parameters related to the shea tree. It is worth recalling that the data was collected using satellite technology.

After all the consultations and debates, a short roadmap was drawn up in the form of recommendations, signed by all the participants, which will be sent from Benin to the funding bodies.