For decades, conservationists have been wary of Yemen's pivotal role in the trade in rhino horn. The oil boom in the Middle East in the 1970s caused a massive influx in remittances to Yemen and a huge demand for rhino horn to make handles for the traditional curved dagger, the jambiya. Demand for rhino horn rapidly resulted in the obliteration of rhinos in much of central and eastern Africa. Since the 1980s we have visited Yemen regularly to monitor the trade, encourage law enforcement and support the use of substitute materials to replace rhino horn.
Since 2008, however, kidnappings of foreigners and a breakdown in law and order in Yemen have meant that no conservationists went to check on the use of rhino horn, despite rising rhino poaching in Africa. However, after the revolution that started in 2011 a new President was elected in February 2012 and we were able to return in November 2012. We learned that the political crisis had made it easier to smuggle rhino horns, mostly from Kenya via Djibouti and Khartoum, through customs at Sana'a airport. But annual imports have perhaps halved since 2008, to c. 25 kg of rhino horn in 2012. Yemen cannot compete with the higher prices offered in eastern Asia. Yemen's wholesale price for horn has remained stable since 2008 at USD 1,500 per kg. The left-over shavings sell illegally in Sana'a for USD 940 per kg, for the eastern Asian market. Vietnam and China are experiencing an economic boom, stimulating demand for the horn.
Yemen's economic crisis resulted in some Yemenis selling their valuable daggers with rhino horn handles, to pay for air passages to leave the country or simply to feed their families. Only the rich can now afford new rhino horn handles for their daggers and, unlike the former President, the new incumbent does not wear a jambiya. Moreover, many Yemenis in Sana'a no longer want to wear an expensive dagger on the street, for fear of it being stolen.
To help further reduce demand for new rhino horn, we produced billboards, banners, posters and stickers about the plight of the rhino. We posted these in the Sana'a zoo, and elsewhere in the city, including in shop windows and taxis. Apart from hostility from some sellers of rhino horn daggers in the souq, Yemenis welcomed us warmly, and were sympathetic.
With new rhino horn daggers less popular, Yemenis have been developing an alternative material for handles that is inexpensive yet closely resembles rhino horn. The handles are made of a gum with a mystery additive that looks like the grain seen in a rhino horn handle. This handle was first introduced in 2008, initially in China, we were told, and has been steadily improved by artisans in the Sana'a souq. Some Yemenis who will not wear cheap daggers with water buffalo horn handles (which are most commonly made) are happy to wear these new so-called Chinese daggers. Many people in Sana'a mistakenly believe they are still imported from China but they are actually being crafted in the souq, bringing much needed employment to artisans.
The time is ripe to expand the marketing of the new jambiya. We spoke with journalists in Sana'a who agreed that these new daggers need to be publicized with a more alluring name: dragon's horn (qarn al tinnin) has been recommended as it conjures up images of mystery, legend and power combined. Let us hope it catches on in a country ready to move on, with Yemenis seeking change and improvement in multiple ways.
