A special council to ensure the ecological security of the Sochi region, which is bidding to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, will be formed by the Russian government.

Wednesday's announcement came amid rising criticism from activists that holding the Olympics could severely damage the region's ecology through extensive construction, increased sewage and waste and a huge influx of visitors.

The creation of the council was announced at a meeting of top officials including Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov and Economic Development Minister Alexander Zhukov, the news agencies ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti reported.

An inspection team from the International Olympic Committee is to visit Sochi next week to assess the bid proposal. The other two finalists for the games are Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea. The IOC will choose the winner in July.

Critics of the Sochi bid say the other finalists have better-developed infrastructure and that holding the games in one of those areas would require less development that could be traumatic to the environment. They complain that the Sochi plan includes constructing facilities in a national park and that the work could damage the region's Caucasian Nature Reserve.

Both the park and the reserve are included in UNESCO's designation of the western Caucasus as a World Heritage Site.

"Preservation and enhancement of the environment have always been an important objective for the Sochi 2014 bid," Sochi bid chairman Dmitry Chernyshenko said in a statement. "To this end, we continue an ongoing dialogue with ecology groups and experts to ensure that all environmental concerns in Sochi are comprehensively addressed."