Wetlands generate a wide range of ecosystem services that support human well‐being and socioeconomic development. However, calculation of the value of these services generally fails to account for their costs. In order to understand the difference between the value and the net value of ecosystem services (VES and NES, respectively), we used government statistics and data from published papers about the values and costs of wetland services to calculate their NES in mainland China. After accounting for the opportunity costs, investment in wetland conservation and protection, and management to prevent natural disasters, the NES of China's wetlands totaled 828.1?×?10 9 RMB in 2014, which is 36.4% less than the VES of 1,301.9?×?10 9 RMB calculated using the traditional approach. From 1952 to 2014, the NES of wetlands across the country (adjusted for inflation) decreased from 2,215.9?×?10 9 RMB to 828.1?×?10 9 RMB. Accounting for the costs to determine the net value of ecosystem services will provide a better foundation to support land planning and utilization. Plain Language Summary Calculating the value of ecosystem services is important to support planning and land utilization. However, the traditional valuation approach fails to account for the costs of these services, and the resulting overestimated values may lead to unwise decisions. In this paper, we propose a model to estimate the costs of wetland ecosystem services, which include the opportunity costs of water and land, investments in wetland conservation and protection, as well as management to prevent natural disasters, thereby providing a better (more holistic) estimate based on the net value. The net value provides stronger support for decision‐making to support ecological conservation and environmental protection and will provide guidance for future land management.
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