That's most probably the case, yes. I live in a country (Romania) where a lot of illegal (or borderline-illegal) logging activities happen and a few environmental activists have been physically harmed while one or two foresters have actually been killed.
The issue is that many mountain communities (where the logging happens) are dependent on that activity for their actual survival, because honestly there's not that much one can do in a mountain village to gain your daily bread, and of course when outside forces (like the central administration that employs said foresters, or the environmental activists whose income does not depend on those trees being cut down) come in and threaten that survival the inevitable happens, i.e. physical violence.