CHONGQING - Southwest China's Chongqing municipality planted 58,133 hectares of trees in January and February of 2020, local authorities said ahead of China's Arbor Day on Thursday.

The municipality plans to plant 426,667 hectares of trees this year, according to the local forestry bureau.

"Amid the epidemic prevention and control, we have provided prevention manuals for the staff and monitored their health status," an official with the bureau said. "By the end of February, 63 of 99 local leading forest enterprises had resumed work."

Chongqing is an important ecological barrier on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, China's longest river. In recent years, public awareness has grown on ecological protection.

In 2019, the city planted more than 42 million trees covering an area of 378,666 hectares.