HANGZHOU - China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced Wednesday that it had set up a foundation to support the development of the country's environmental protection organizations.

The Alibaba Foundation, jointly established by Alibaba and its subsidiaries, has an initial fund of 50 million yuan ($7.8 million).

"The establishment of the foundation is aimed at creating a good environment for public welfare and arousing awareness among the company's employees and the public over environmental protection," said Jin Yuanying, secretary general of the foundation.

According to the foundation charter, its funds will mainly come from donations from the group as well as its subsidiaries.

Apart from environmental protection, the foundation will provide funds for natural disaster relief and provide assistance to the poor and the disabled.

Ten staff members of Alibaba will be elected to form a committee to evaluate all public welfare programs that will be funded.

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma said the company would not only put a tight control over pollution itself but also promote the social awareness over environmental protection through its e-commerce platforms.

Previously, Alibaba announced that it would starting from 2010 pump 0.3 percent of its annual operating revenue into public welfare, mainly for the use of environmental protection.

Figures released by Alibaba showed that the company has so far donated more than 80 million yuan to the country's public welfare organizations.