Fisheries-dependent communities and in particular small-scale fishers are exposed to different social, political and economic risks and vulnerabilities. They face social and political marginalization, poverty is widespread and coupled with poor working conditions. The livelihoods of coastal and inland fishing communities are further endangered by the depletion of fish stocks caused by overfishing. Other vulnerabilities include degradation of aquatic environments coupled with natural disasters and climate change. Although social protection policies have the potential to stabilize incomes, create a safety net for fishers and have the potential of increasing resilience of fishers against diverse types of vulnerabilities, small-scale fishers have an unmet need for social protection policies and few social protection programmes are designed to meet the specific needs of fishers and fisheries-related workers. The workshop on Social protection to foster sustainable management of natural resources and reduce poverty in fisheries-dependent communities, held on 1718 November 2015 in Rome, Italy. The document was jointly prepared by Mariaeleonora D’Andrea, Nicole Franz, Florence Poulain and Susana Siar from the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, FAO, and Daniela Kalikoski from the Strategic Programme 3 – Rural Poverty Reduction, FAO. The workshop was jointly organized by the FAO Policy, Economics and Institutions team (FIAP) in collaboration with the Fishing Operations and Technology team (FIAO). The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) and the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI) are gratefully acknowledged for the preparation of the contributed papers, reproduced in the last section of the document as submitted. The proceedings is available at: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6880e.pdf