One of the most important requirements in order to have funds coming from the hydro-electric power companies (HEPC) for the purpose of rehabilitating and conserving the watersheds is to submit a proposal to them. 

The writeshop is an avenue to come up with a proposal that will be submitted to the HEPC for the local government units (LGU) and the local communities hosting the hydropower plants to access these funds available from the HEPC.

On July 28-30, 2010, a watershed conservation proposal writeshop was conducted in Mt. Data Lodge in Bauko, Mountain Province. 24 participants and representatives from Bakun LGU, Bakun Indigenous Tribes Organization (BITO), HEDCOR, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines (NCIP), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Luzon Hydropower Corporation (LHC), and the Cordillera Highlands Agricultural Resource Management (CHARM) Project came and actively contributed to the drafting of the proposal.

Dr. Raquel Lopez, a post-doctoral fellow of the World Agroforestry Centre, who is currently working on the Forest Carbon Development Project, unselfishly shared all her knowledge using the framework she developed for coming up with a project design document (PDD), which is crucial to access the funding opportunities from the business sector or the buyers of the Environmental Services (ES) especially the carbon credits. The first day was devoted to the concepts and the framework of the PDD. On the second day, the participants were divided into six groups to work on the 1) watershed areas, 2) communal forest, 3) survey watershed and communal forest that are not yet delineated, 4) capacity building, 5) policy formulation and 6) rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs). On the last day, the outputs of each group were presented. These will be incorporated in the proposal which will be finalized and submitted to the HEPC before this year ends.

The participants gave positive feedbacks and are really very grateful for the writeshop. Ms. Adela Comila, the Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer, said that “the watershed conservation proposal writeshop is a legacy that Dr. Lopez left behind, which is a very empowering tool that will give an opportunity for Bakun to help them conserve and protect their watershed.” This event was organized by RUPES-Bakun, and the food and accommodation was shouldered by the CHARM Project.