Multispecies Solidarity: How People and Cinchona Survived the <scp>COVID</scp> ‐19 Pandemic in Loja, Ecuador

ABSTRACT This article uses the case of Cinchona officinalis entrepreneurship during the COVID‐19 pandemic to explore how dynamics of care and extraction figure within the construct of multispecies solidarity. C. officinalis is an endangered medicinal tree that holds global historical significance as a natural source of quinine. In Loja, Ecuador, C. officinalis trees were extracted for their bark or “casarilla” to the point of near‐extinction in the late 1800s. Today, the trees continue to play a significant role in local health knowledge and practice, making them vulnerable to exploitation when disease events spike demand for medicinal resources. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, entrepreneurs played a unique role fostering solidarities with C. officinalis by developing cascarilla‐based products that reduced pressure on wild trees while enabling local health practices. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with entrepreneurs, cascarilla harvesters, and consumers, the author uses the phrases solidarity through and solidarity with C. officinalis to highlight how seemingly instrumentalist interactions with medicinal species are tied to practices of care that enable more‐than‐human communities to navigate global health crises. Yet, as the following analysis highlights, the ability to enact solidarities with nonhuman species is strongly shaped by social status and economic resources. Ultimately, this article diversifies understandings of what multispecies solidarity can look like while critically engaging in questions of who is best positioned to participate. Such considerations are essential as communities prepare for futures in which pressures on medicinal species become more frequent amid recurring disease crises.