As the largest freshwater lake in China and a wetland of international importance, the Poyang Lake Basin has received considerable attention from the international scientific community; therefore, research on the ecological environmental protection and sustainable development of Poyang Lake Basin is of great importance. In this paper, based on ecosystem service value analysis, taking the entire Poyang Lake basin as the study area and using data from 1990, 2000, and 2008, the value and per unit area value of ecosystem services were calculated from the whole and the sub-region. In addition, based on the Weaver composite index, the ecological service value structure and slope structure of each sub-basin in the Poyang lake basin were calculated. Analysis revealed that the ecosystem service value of Poyang Lake Basin continues to increase over the three periods, and that the sustainability of the entire area is driven in a positive direction. In each sub-area, most of the area has a higher ecosystem service value per unit area; the level of sustainable development is also better, and it showed a positive trend. These regions have a high ratio of forest, water, and construction land, and low ratio of cultivated land to unutilized land. However, the ecosystem service value per unit area in the central region of the Poyang Lake Basin is lower, and the level of sustainable development is lower and it shows a negative trend. These regions have a high ratio of cultivated land to construction land, and a low ratio of forest to grass. In order to promote the sustainable development of the basin, engineering strategies for returning cultivated land to forest and returning cultivated land to lake should be implemented, and the increase in construction land area should be strictly controlled, especially the conversion of farmland to construction land. The lake and forest regions of the Poyang lake basin could potentially be restored through these measures. As for the sub-regions, it should control the construction land and the cultivated land to occupy the forest and grass, and engineering strategies for returning cultivated land to forest and returning cultivated land to grass should be implemented. These measures would aid in the protection of the ecological environment of the Poyang Lake Basin.