Agroecotourism Development for Community Empowerment and Strengthening Social Capital in Pemo Village, Kelimutu Sub-District, Ende District, Indonesia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was: (1) to describe the development of agroecotourism in the aspects of the mindset, norms and artifacts as elements of  community empowerment; (2) to describe patterns or forms of social capital in the developmentof agroecotourism as a  form of sustainable tourism .Elements of social capital that were considered were: the system of values, human resource competencies, social management, social organization, social structure, leadership, and good governance. Through descriptive analysis, observations and interviews several findings were obtained: a)  community empowerment through the agroecotourism development  has not been run optimally; b) low competence of human capital; c) initiatives are top-down; d) lack of social capital socialization resulted in the many missing value systems in the community; e) development of agroecotourism seems redundant because the strengthening of social capital is not yet a consideration for implementation.Elements of value system which are necessary for social capital for community empowerment are: a sense of love, trust, self-esteem, empathy, honesty, openness, mutual sharing, altruism, visionary, and rationality; while advancement in meeting the material needs of the people is the initiative from the community at the grassroots level, a continuous and planned socialization and commitment is required.

Keywords: agroecotourism, empowerment, social capital and rural communities