In Benin, 58 forest areas have been classified, representing nearly 25% of the national territory. This statistic has remained unchanged since the last report on biodiversity in Benin. However, depending on their richness in fauna and valuable forest species, it must be admitted that the various protected areas thus classified have been allocated to specific methods of development. National parks have a good conservation program. Classified forests and reforestation areas (except the classified Lama forest) suffer from a very high degree of fragmentation that does not promote the conservation of biodiversity. However, it should be noted that the successes achieved in the management of protected areas in Benin are explained by the provision of these areas with participatory development plans implemented by specific management units and many of which are currently being updated in the country. By considering the area ratio of Protected Areas to the density of the human population, it is inferred that the Atacora-Donga Departments could presage a better future for Protected Areas given their considerable surface area and low population density. No Protected Areas exist in the Mono-Couffo Departments, while those in the Atlantique-Littoral and Ouémé-Plateau Departments appear visibly more threatened because they are highly populated areas with very small areas of Protected Areas. In the absence of appropriate indicators and the references required to assess the evolution of Benin's Protected Areas and their resources, it is currently not possible to project trends in terms of their evolution over time. However, in view of the successes achieved in some Protected Areas (case of the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve), the forest administration is increasingly striving to provide classified forests with participatory management plans and to set up functional implementation units (the Technical Units for Forest Management).

As recommended by the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the set of Protected Areas in a country or network of national protected areas should be representative of all existing ecosystems. While savannas are well represented in the system of protected areas in Benin, the dense forests of southern Benin are poorly represented and other remarkable ecosystems such as the vast majority of inselbergs in central Benin and the Atacora Range are absent. A significant fraction of biodiversity is thus not protected by the network of state-owned protected areas in Benin.