KYOTO--The creator of a popular smartphone app, which uses artificial intelligence to identify wild plants and animals in photos, believes it can one day help improve environmental conservation efforts.

Downloaded more than 250,000 times in the two years since its official release, the free app lets users learn the names of living things they encounter by chance.

When a user takes a photo of an animal or a plant with their smartphone, the app, called Biome, displays the subject’s name after it analyzes the image, along with the photo’s time and location data.

The app covers more than 90,000 species of creatures found in Japan--nearly all of them--and lets users easily share their photos with others. It also comes with a gaming feature called Quest, which gives users in-game badges or prizes when they find certain creatures.

But the app developer, Kyoto-based Biome Inc., is not only offering fun facts about flora and fauna.

The head of Biome, Shogoro Fujiki, 32, also the app creator, said he hopes it can help harness the power of the market to improve biodiversity conservation to help achieve the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals.

"It's a win-win if we can create a society in which we can make profits by conserving the environment rather than destroying it," Fujiki stressed. "I want to create a model case to achieve environmental conservation through economic activities."

Fujiki said Biome can evaluate environmental impacts brought about by business activities in a quantitative manner based on data provided by users as they enjoy collecting photos.

He expects the data will one day help forecast pest outbreaks and fish catches.

PROMPTED BY ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION

Fujiki got the idea for the app when he visited Borneo in Southeast Asia as a graduate student for his doctoral research. He said he could not forget the devastation he witnessed.

Tropical forests that once sprawled in front of him were clear-cut, depriving wild animals of their habitats. The trees were logged for oil palm plantations to produce palm oil for food and cosmetics.

"Forests had been completely logged as far as I could see, and I could even see the horizon," said Fujiki, recalling how drastically the landscape had changed over time.

He was left feeling helpless as he gazed at the results of devastating economic activities.

Fujiki was enrolled at the Graduate School of Agriculture at Kyoto University at the time, and was part of a forest ecology lab working on a way to evaluate the ecosystem.

He began visiting Borneo in 2012 and returned frequently over a period of five years, camping out while working on his research.

His camping days in the jungle were nothing but grueling.

He boiled muddy water to secure drinking water and slept on a stretcher made of gunny bags. When he contracted a fever, he couldn't move his muscles for a week and was covered in flies.

"Those who stay in tropical forests for ecological research would become wrecks," he said.

Fujiki eventually developed an algorithm that lets users evaluate biodiversity in a wider area based on survey data that he risked his life to collect. It then combines the data with satellite images. He received his doctorate in agriculture in March 2017.

But he did not want to become an academic because he felt it was imperative to bring an economic perspective to combatting the effects of the massive force of the global economy that destroyed the tropical forests.

Fujiki thought it was more powerful to "spread something rooted on money and greed, rather than a sense of duty" to help improve the world.

It was then he remembered what he saw in an inland area of Borneo.

In a village without electricity, indigenous people had no refrigerators or TV sets. But most adults had smartphones, using generators to charge their devices and setting up Wi-Fi antennas.

He came up with an idea to make smartphones into observation bases to collect data on creatures from all over the world.

A TOUGH SELL

After he graduated, Fujiki decided to launch a start-up instead of becoming a researcher or founding a nonprofit organization.

When Fujiki applied for a special program offered by the university that provides training and support to entrepreneurs who are launching a new business, his idea was well-received.

He gained confidence, and invited Takanori Genroku, 28, who also attended Kyoto University, to help set up Biome in May 2017. Genroku is now the chief technical officer at the company.

But when the duo started fund-raising, investors turned a cold shoulder. They said it would be unprofitable and that the two should work on a volunteer basis or set up a nonprofit organization.

All they could do at that point was to continue their work on the app and develop other services while they dipped into their savings to make ends meet.

Fujiki and Genroku tried to meet as many investors as possible to promote their ideas. Eventually, after about a year, someone finally invested. Another year later, in April 2019, they officially released the Biome app.

Last year, group companies of East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) and West Japan Railway Co. (JR West), as well as Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu), jointly hosted an event from March to May, encouraging participants to look for living things in their local parks and aquariums. More than 10,000 people joined the event, uploading photos of 12,000 species.

The number of photos uploaded through the app exceeded 1 million in January this year.

The app itself has been downloaded 260,000 times by May.

"The rich diversity of living organisms prompted people to move around, creating an economic value," Fujiki said.

Feeling confident, the CEO has already started selling data on creatures to research institutions. Biome is also expanding its operations, including introducing the app to elementary schools and partnering with travel agencies.

The company aims to use the app for biodiversity conservation once it has collected more data.