Abstract Background The assumption that biodiversity and ecosystem services can help in efforts to tackle poverty is implicit in international targets set for biodiversity conservation (by the Convention on Biological Diversity) and for poverty reduction (enshrined in the Millennium Development Goals). The 2010 United Nations General Assembly further stressed the linkage, claiming: “preserving biodiversity is inseparable from the fight against poverty.” Nevertheless the evidence-base on biodiversity – poverty links is not as robust as one might assume. Studies in the academic and “grey” literature have used diverse methods and metrics, different components of biodiversity and dimensions of poverty have been studied, and the scale of impact has rarely been assessed. Methods/Design This systematic map protocol sets out the proposed methodology for exploring the primary question: Which components or attributes of biodiversity affect (positively or negatively) which dimensions of poverty? The overall aim of our review is to unpack the broad claims and assumptions that are made about biodiversity-poverty links such as those above, and provide researchers, policy-makers and practitioners with a methodical overview of the type and quantity of evidence. The online databases SCOPUS and Web of Science will be searched for relevant peer-reviewed literature using search terms and Boolean search operators. Relevant grey literature will be identified through the membership and resources of the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group. The literature searches will be followed by a title and abstract level search using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data will be extracted from the final list of papers using a questionnaire established through literature review and an expert workshop. A report and online database will be produced based on the results of the review.