Maintenance and protection of ecosystem services are the basis for achieving sustainable development. Quantitative assessment of the economic value of wetland ecosystem services has become one of leading topics in the field of ecology. Choice experiments (CE) comprise an important non-market resource value evaluation technique, which are carried out by eliciting responses from individuals in hypothetical markets. CEs also enable researchers to measure a respondent's Willingness to Accept (WTA) compensation or Willingness to Pay (WTP) a premium for different characteristics of one product, and to analyze the relative value of a combination of different attributes from various alternatives by using econometric models. As CEs are most likely to reveal respondents' preferences for goods or services, such experiments have become a widespread means of ecological valuation. The purpose of this paper is to assist policy makers in formulating efficient and sustainable wetland management policies by providing the results of a valuation study on the Sanjiang Plain Wetlands. A CE was employed to estimate the values that changes to ecosystem service functions of the Sanjiang Plain Wetlands could provide to the public. We estimated partial values for wetland conservation, with a focus on wetland size, biodiversity, water conservation, and natural landscapes, among a myriad of wetland ecosystem services. A random parameter logit (RPL) model was employed to evaluate the ecosystem services in monetary units, and a latent class model (LCM) was employed to confirm and account for heterogeneity in the preferences of the public for various wetland ecosystem service functions. Compensating surplus welfare measures were also estimated for management scenarios representing changes in the quality and quantity of wetland ecosystem services. The results reveal that:(1) the relative wetland ecosystem valuation results of each wetland attribute are as follows:water conservation > wetland area > biodiversity > natural landscape. The relative contribution degree of each wetland attribute to the environment follows the same pattern.(2) The total WTP is RMB 1.461 billion per year in order to maintain the current wetland ecosystem service functions of the Sanjiang Plain Wetlands, and RMB 9.858 billion per year to improve them. (3) There is considerable preference heterogeneity across the public, which derives significant positive values from sustainable wetland management. We were able to divide respondents into three categories:those who preferred protecting resources, those who preferred protecting the landscape, and those who were price-sensitive. Female respondents and highly educated respondents preferred resource conservation, while respondents with higher incomes and those who had travelled more number of times to the Sanjiang Plain Wetlands preferred landscape protection. However, respondents with lower education and income levels were more sensitive to costs, and preferred to choose alternatives with lower cost. These results can aid in the design of socially optimal policies for sustainable management of wetlands and provide a theoretical basis for the development of environment-related policies.