Community Empowerment Based on Ecotourism in Sukalaksana Village, Samarang District, Garut Regency, West Java Province
Downloads
Community empowerment is an important approach in village development, especially in the context of ecotourism-based tourism village development. This study aims to analyze the process of community empowerment in Sukalaksana Village, Garut Regency, with an emphasis on changes in awareness, capacity building, and changes in community structure and social relations. This study uses a qualitative approach with a case study method. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews with the Village Head, the Chairman of Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes), the Head of the Garut Regency Tourism and Culture Office, the Head of the Treasury Division of BPKAD Garut Regency, community leaders, and residents who are directly involved in the management of the tourist village, and supported by participatory observation and documentation studies. Data analysis was carried out thematically by linking field findings to the framework of Hogan's empowerment theory. The results of the study show that the community empowerment process in Sukalaksana Village is carried out by local actors who start from scratch so as to produce a change in the mindset of the community. This change in mindset encourages increased community participation in village decision-making and activities, as well as strengthening social and economic capacity through the use of local potential based on ecotourism. In addition, the formation and strengthening of the role of BUMDes contributes to social, economic and environmental changes, characterized by the involvement of various community groups, including women, in the management of village resources. This study concludes that ecotourism-based community empowerment is a sustainable process that not only impacts economic improvement, but also produces interrelated social and environmental changes. These findings affirm the importance of an empowerment approach based on local potential and community participation as a sustainable village development strategy.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nadya Kurnia Sansita
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA). that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
