Lightning strikes in mangrove forests foster resilience by enhancing rejuvenation and landscape heterogeneity. However, lightning induced canopy gaps in managed forests, like the Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR) in Malaysia, cause biomass loss that results in a direct economic impact to pole and charcoal production systems. Furthermore, the contractors do not have a priori knowledge on the status of their assigned concessions/coupes for thinning (in 15- and 20-year-old stands for poles) or clear-felling (in 30-year-old stands for charcoal) activities. Using remote sensing tools (Landsat 8 and Google Earth Pro) combined with in situ data, we measured how canopy gaps impact forest matrix structure and thereby socioeconomics of the ongoing silvicultural management. Our findings revealed a significant loss of biomass due to, first, the reduction of the area of the exploitable greenwood caused by lightning strikes, and second, diameter and height of trees after lightning is smaller compared to matrix vegetation (i.e., unaffected forest). From the selected canopy gaps only (n=10), biomass removed by lightning strikes represent an economical loss ranging from 16,000 € (around 19,000 USD) up to 35,000 € (around 40,000 USD) for charcoal international market prices, this suggests that the actual loss of biomass and thereby socioeconomic is larger for the whole area of the MMFR. On the other hand, lightning-induced canopy gaps had a significative recruitment of seedlings compared to matrix forest that could act as a seedling bank. Yet, thinning and clear-cutting within gaps limit their regenerative potential, exacerbating biomass loss. The results of this study suggest the use of open access earth observation tools (i.e., Google Earth) to identify gaps on forest coupes and help stakeholders before conducting their thinning and clear-felling operations in the MMFR.