BiomeViewe Major Update Improves Biodiversity Distribution Forecasting for Corporate Natural Capital Assessment

Biome Inc., headquartered in Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, has significantly updated BiomeViewe, a tool that visualizes species distribution forecasts and supports companies in collecting and analyzing natural capital data. The update improves the accuracy of species distribution forecasts and supports companies and organizations with higher-precision data for assessing their dependence and impact on natural capital, as well as identifying important areas for business activities. BiomeViewe is a high-resolution mapping tool that uses proprietary biodiversity distribution big data and analytical technology to visualize where different organisms are likely to live. By overlaying this information with corporate business areas, companies can understand the relationship between their operations and nature, including dependence and impact, and use the tool to identify risks and opportunities and prioritize countermeasures. Against the backdrop of the nature-positive movement and growing demand for nature-related disclosures such as TNFD, companies are increasingly expected to make management decisions and disclose information based on their dependence and impact on natural capital. However, because natural capital is not directly visible, it remains difficult to quantify which business sites depend on or affect biodiversity, and to what extent. BiomeViewe enables companies to understand these relationships by business site and even by species, while also making data-based analysis possible in areas where field surveys are difficult. This supports the identification and evaluation of future natural capital risks. The update improves forecast accuracy through three major changes. First, the data volume has expanded by approximately 2.5 times. BiomeViewe integrates expert data, including GBIF, public monitoring data, and academic papers, with biological data obtained through Biome, the organism collection app developed and operated by the company. With this update, the volume of biological data has increased to about 2.5 times the previous level, while the number of covered species has grown by about 1.2 times. As a result, the tool can cover a broad range of environments, from urban areas, grasslands, farmland, wetlands, forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes to coastal areas, enabling more accurate distribution forecasting and analysis for more species. Second, the tool now uses ensemble modeling. By replacing the previous single analysis model with ensemble modeling that combines up to four types of analytical models, the accuracy of distribution forecasting has been greatly improved, producing more reliable evaluation results. This also makes it possible to reflect habitat characteristics that could not be fully captured by a single model. Third, the environmental data has been refreshed. The update introduces high-resolution environmental data, including the latest satellite data, enabling highly accurate distribution forecasts that capture finer environmental differences and recent environmental changes. BiomeViewe supports biodiversity conservation activities for companies and organizations through three main approaches. It supports the collection and analysis of natural capital data for TNFD disclosure by using Biome’s proprietary biodiversity big data and enabling end-to-end disclosure support, including the calculation of various evaluation indicators aligned with each company’s material issues. It displays distribution data in high-resolution meshes of approximately 1 km, which can be used to understand natural capital conditions around business sites, narrow down OECM candidate sites and nature-positive sites, and evaluate conservation areas. It also helps companies strategically determine important natural capital areas by outputting high-precision species-specific distribution forecast maps and visualizing custom indicators according to evaluation goals, such as by combining environmental indicator species or species that may provide cultural services. The service has already supported multiple companies in responding to TNFD requirements, with many continuing or repeatedly using it. Biome will continue to provide biodiversity data in a form that can be used for management decision-making and support sustainable business operations. Biome Inc. is a startup originating from Kyoto University with the mission of making biodiversity conservation a natural part of society. It provides Biome, an organism collection app equipped with proprietary species name identification AI. As of May 2026, the app has exceeded 1.25 million cumulative downloads. The company has built one of Japan’s largest real-time species distribution databases, containing more than 10 million biological records. Using this big data, Biome supports corporate TNFD disclosure, certification support for nature-positive sites, and biodiversity assessment in urban development. The company works to remove the bottleneck in nature-positive initiatives by enabling analysis based on local measured data, while creating social infrastructure that balances environmental conservation with economic rationality. In consideration of rare species habitat protection and potential impacts on urban evaluations, the data publicly disclosed on the website is limited to displaying species counts at the taxonomic group level.