Efforts to rehabilitate degraded mangrove ecosystems in Indonesia started in the 1960s and have recently received increased attention. Rehabilitation efforts have been mainly conducted through community-based mangrove management (CBMM) programs, aimed at restoring important services such as food provisioning and coastal protection, and for biodiversity conservation. Our study assessed the effectiveness of CBMM strategies to conserve biodiversity in four adjacent Indonesian coastal villages (Sriwulan, Bedono, Timbulsloko, Surodadi) in Central Java. For this, we used complementary methodologies combining participatory resource mapping, semi-structured interviews, questionnaire-based interviews, field assessments and literature review. This yielded detailed information on mangrove rehabilitation activities, management approaches and the impacts of mangrove rehabilitation on biodiversity in the four villages. Our analysis focussed on mangrove forest structure and diversity and macro invertebrate diversity.