Abstract:To supply scientific and quantitative index to forest ecosystem management, the values of ecosystem services of major forests in China were evaluated and analyzed in this paper according to the forest inventory data from the third national investigation of forest resources(1984～1988) and the global average values of forest ecosystem services given by Costanza et al. (1997). The result indicates that the value of forest ecosystem services in China costs at least about $117.401 ×109 considering 14 types of ecosystem services annually. Among 14 types of ecosystem services, forests’ nutrient cycling which accounts for 40 per cent of the total value contributed the greatest, while their raw materials, including lumber, fuel and fodder, accounted only for 15 percent of the total value. It indicates that the ecological effect of forests was much more obvious.The total value of each forest ecosystem services had close relation with its net primary production (NPP):Ln(Va)= 108.21 (Tp)0.93 (R2= 0. 844). It may be helpful to simplify the procedure of estimating the value of ecosystem services, and provide a scientific and quantitative basis for rational protection and sustainable utilization of forest resources.