Recent reports have stated that over 400,000 ha of abandoned aquaculture ponds exist in SE Asia/Indonesia, providing potential opportunity for mangrove rehabilitation. But is there genuine opportunity to rehabilitate mangroves in “abandoned” ponds, and what challenges need to be understood and overcome before rehabilitation can take place? This paper looks at the ways in which key social, economic, biophysical and governance factors which contributed to the development of rehabilitation opportunity maps in two degraded Indonesian mangrove-aquaculture landscapes. Major findings of this study show that differences in surface elevation and sediment dynamics, opportunity cost, stakeholder rights and responsibilities and governance flexibility resulted in far greater MFLR opportunity in Tanjung Panjang, Gorontalo versus Demak, Central Java. The paper concludes by recommending the continued adaptation and use of the ROAM process to determine MFLR opportunity Nation-wide.