The mango tree is a large tropical tree giving in general low and irregular yields across consecutive years. Researches on canopy management have been a cornerstone to lessen, but not resolve, these problems. Mango production now faces new commercial and societal demar_ids besides higher yields: better fruit quality, in particular sanitary and nutritional quality, and reduced impacts on the environment. These issues bring challenges for the design of canopy management strategies since these objectives are interacting and sometimes conflicting. A better knowledge of the mango tree canopy functioning, in relation toits environment, appears necessary to design appropriate canopy management practices and to deal with the necessary compromises between these objectives. The study of tree architectural development, cou pied with ecophysiological researches, appears as a relevant approach to tackle these points. ln this paper we draw the current trends in terms of canopy management and vigour contrai for the manga tree, we present the recent advances made in architectural analysis and ecophysiology, and we outline the research needs for the future. The importance of the cultivar factor is highlighted, leading to the conclusion that a unique canopy management strategy is probably utopian, and cultivar-specific strategies must be considered. Another key point is the necessary interdisciplinarity of these approaches, in order to gather and process ecophysiological, architectural and genetic data to design canopy management strategies. Finally, the complexity of the canopy functioning requires a conceptual and quantitative modelling approach to synthesise the knowledge and to support the design of management strategies. (Texte intégral)