CHONGQING - Authorities in southwest China's Chongqing municipality have finished creating an ecological conservation zone near the Three Gorges Reservoir, said a spokesman from the Chongqing Municipal Forestry Bureau on Monday.

The ecological function of the Three Gorges Reservoir area has been restored by creating diversified forest belts, the spokesman said.

From 2010 to 2012, Chongqing municipal authorities planted over 153,333 hectares of trees on both sides of the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

The area is listed as one of China's most environmentally vulnerable regions due to decreased vegetation coverage and increased soil erosion.

To maintain and increase the area's biodiversity, authorities in Chongqing have worked to restore the ecology of the area's valleys, canyons and urban areas, including planting shelter forests near the reservoir.

Located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest waterway, the Three Gorges project consists of a 185-meter-high dam, which was completed in early 2006, a five-tier ship lock, a reservoir and 32 hydropower generators.