Mangrove in the Arabian Gulf is under pressure from land use change and therefore compensatory planting of mangrove has been conducted in locations without any previous natural mangrove. Mangrove in the extreme environments in the Arabian Gulf consists of one species, Avicennia marina. However, while plant diversity is low, benthic macrofauna species richness of sediments is high. We examined the potential long-term success of compensatory planting of mangrove at sites without previous mangrove, as a conservation measure for supporting biodiversity. We compared the community of benthic macrofauna (Polychaeta, Gastropoda, Bivalvia, Cirripedia, and Crustacea, and of all groups (total)) and physical parameters at 19 stations in five planted mangrove communities and 15 stations in four natural mangrove communities in Qatar. While a previous 10-year study reported that natural mangrove had higher benthic biodiversity, soil organic content, and clay content, we found that three decades after afforestation there were no significant differences between the benthic macrofauna in natural and planted mangrove as regards total abundance, species richness, Shannon’s diversity, effective number of species, or evenness. Only species richness of Crustacea was significantly higher in natural mangrove. Similarly, total organic carbon, sand, and clay content did not differ between planted and natural mangrove