Abstract: Rural residents benefit from river basin ecosystems as a result of the interaction of natural, social, and economic systems. Based on 798 questionnaires of rural residents in the Xin’an River Basin, a logical framework of the well-being effects of watershed ecosystem services and the paths to achieve was constructed by combining the theory of planned behavior. This study analyzed the needs and demand satisfaction status of watershed residents in terms of the importance of watershed ecosystem services and residents’ well-being satisfaction, and explored the specific process of natural ecosystem flow to well-being by using structural equation modeling. The results showed that: (1) rural residents in the river basin are mainly pure farmers, and their livelihood patterns hada relatively high demand for provisioning and regulating services, so the importance perception is high as well.The overall change of ecosystem services in the watershed demonstrated a slightly increasing trend; (2) Residents’ satisfaction with health well-being is high, while satisfaction with freedom and choice of well-being is low. The satisfaction status of higher-order well-being needs was poor and was difficult to achieve; (3) Well-being was the result of the residents’ initiative as the main body of action to promote the formation of a positive interaction between the natural ecological system and the social and economic system. Two paths were concluded. The first path was:the importance of ecosystem services → ecological awareness → change in ecosystem services → well-being of residents; The second one: the importance of ecosystem services → ecological awareness → willingness to participate → eco-environmental behavior → change in ecosystem services → well-being of residents. Finally, this paperput forward suggestions on promoting the realization of well-being in terms of the improvement of residents’ ecological cognition, the transformation and upgrading of sustainable livelihoods, the development of incentives and penalties, and the exercise of the subjective initiative of action subjects.