Katana, The treasuring antiques is a relativly new concept to the bulk of the population in arabia. The majority of yemenis were dirt poor and wanted a new looking jambiya. Rhino horn was for the rich. In the sixties they would decorate the jambiyas and bandoliers with thumb tacks, bits of foil from cigarette wrappers and the most popular jambiya scabbard cover seemed to be green plastic. It was during the seventies when about a million yemenis working in Saudi Arabia and the gulf states were remiting hundreds of millions home that the common man could afford rhino. This resulted in extensive poaching and a drop in black rhino population from over 100 thousand to about 2500 today.
Because Yemen supported Saddam Hussain with the invasion of Kuwait, Yemenis were expelled and the cash flow stopped. Which is good for the rhinos.
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