USNEA brings together nature, creativity and practical learning.
We are developing educational projects and planning community activities for
young people and the wider public. USNEA is a voluntary, non-governmental,
not-for-profit initiative based in Prague, Czech Republic. Its resources are
intended for its activities and administration; profits are not distributed.
Usnea communitas, z. s. is a registered non-profit association entered in the Register of Associations maintained by the Municipal Court in Prague, section L, insert 82482.
- Legal name
- Usnea communitas, z. s.
- Legal form
- registered association (zapsaný spolek) under Section 214 et seq.
of Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code of the Czech Republic
- Registration number (IČO)
- 29953448
- Register
- Register of Associations kept by the Municipal Court in Prague,
section L, insert 82482
verify in the Czech public register
- Date of establishment
- 10 September 2026
- Registered address
- Sokolská 1883/8, Nové Město, 120 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic
- Statutory representative
- Vanda Goncalves Zacarias, chairwoman, acting independently
vanda@usnea.ngo
Confirming affiliation. The association is founded and
represented by Vanda Goncalves Zacarias, chairwoman and sole
statutory representative — vanda@usnea.ngo.
She is the person authorised to confirm that someone acts on behalf of
the association. Her personal experience includes participation in
Erasmus+ youth projects since 2023 and Youthpass certificates from organisations
in France and Slovenia. She is also a certified coach. These are her personal
qualifications and experience, rather than a record of activities run by USNEA.
Project development and general enquiries.
Martin Pazderník is an external collaborator supporting project
development and financial planning. He develops the three educational projects
described below. Contact: martin@usnea.ngo.
Please note. Usnea communitas is not a school, university or
accredited educational institution. Its planned public-benefit activities
focus on non-formal and experiential learning.
Why. In a city it is easy to live side by side without
meeting, and just as easy to speak of nature as something that happens
elsewhere. Both are learned, and both can be unlearned — not by a lecture
but by experience: working together on a particular place, travelling to
meet peers from another country, putting your hands in the soil. The
association aims to create occasions where that experience can happen.
Who the activities are for. We plan to focus particularly on
young people up to the age of 30 and the
local community in Prague. Our educational projects are
also intended for the wider public.
Projects in development. We are working on three digital
projects for USNEA's future educational activities:
- Permaculture Garden / Le Jardin — an educational game
about permaculture. Open the development version.
- Vědomé utrácení — an application focused on financial
literacy and reflection on personal spending.
Open the development version.
- Zahrady Prahy — an interactive map of Prague's gardens,
intended to support exploration and learning about urban nature.
All three projects are in development. We are working on their completion
and educational use. We also plan community activities connecting nature,
creativity and shared learning, and would like to develop international
cooperation with organisations experienced in youth education.
Fields of work. Experiential and non-formal education,
nature-based practice, non-violent communication, emotional, digital and
financial literacy, creative practice, community building, ecological care
and people's relationship to the landscape. We intend to explore suitable
grant and partnership opportunities, including Erasmus+ and Czech programmes
supporting local ecology. We have not yet started USNEA's registration for an OID.
About the name. Usnea is a genus of beard lichen.
It grows on the bark of trees but takes nothing from them — it draws water
and nutrients straight from the air and the rain, which is exactly why it is
so sensitive to pollution and why its presence is read as a measure of clean
air. A lichen is not one organism but a partnership of a fungus and an alga,
neither of which would survive alone on bare bark. Communitas means
community. We intend to work the same way: to care for places and people so
that it shows in their condition, and to take nothing from them.
