A total of 20 million yuan ($3.28 million) will be used toward the protection and breeding of endangered plants in the Three Gorges Reservoir area within the next three to five years, local environmental authorities said.

In the area in Hebei province, there are more than 6,000 plant species, of which 47 are rare species and 37 are endemic plants, statistics from the China Plant Red Data Book showed.

The move is seen as an effort to ensure local ecological and environmental safety since part of the reservoir area is becoming more eutrophic, a water pollution problem, due to a declining number of plants along the banks of the reservoir, chinanews.com reported.