Mangrove forests are inherently dynamic and are often regarded as complex social-ecological systems. Being located at the interface between the land and the sea, they need to keep up with changes in sea-level (Saintilan et al., 2020) and other gradual or extreme events to be successful, and so do mangrove rehabilitation and restoration (hereafter referred to as “R/R”) initiatives. However, both the starting condition before R/R activities and the evaluation of their success, may be subject to misconceptions or at least require special attention. We highlight three such points of attention that are seldomly, if ever, emphasised in the scientific literature: shifted baselines, faunal assemblages and human poverty and uncertainty.