September 17, 2008 Police crackdown on illegal logging in Amazon rainforest Play video

(NECN/ABC) - There is discouraging news on the delicate state of the rain forests in Brazil. They are among the world's greatest natural wonders, but they continue to fall victim to human trespassers.

Police are raiding the sawmills in the town of Tailandia. They're there to crackdown on illegal logging, a practice that's destroying the Amazon rainforest.

It's an uphill struggle - In this region, a state of emergency has been declared.

Years of indiscriminate logging have destroyed this area, once thick with rainforest.

Now, all that's left are razed areas, torched to clear the land for cattle ranching and illegal charcoal ovens,

In these poverty-stricken areas, woodmill workers are scared of losing their jobs as the authorities clamp down on the illegal mills:

"We'll be unemployed - said this logger - "people here live off the logging industry. When this stops everyone will feel the effect."

This is the largest crackdown launched by the Brazilian authorities on illegal logging. Just last year alone, environmental agencies estimate that $3 billion were made from the sale of illegal timber - that's twice the amount made from legitimate sales.

The Brazilian environment agency says in the last few months of 2007 an area almost the size of Rhode Island was cleared here - that's sixty per cent more than what was cleared in the previous three years.

The impact of logging on the forest has been devastating but it's not

just the environment at stake - human rights abuses are rife in these lawless areas. People work in slave-like conditions in the sawmills or filling charcoal ovens and are threatened with death if they try to get help.

One man told us that how brutal work practices left them fearing for their lives:

"We're all afraid of being killed', he said, 'we live in fear from one hour to the next of having our lives and our families' lives taken - it's very dangerous here."

So far the authorities have confiscated nearly 9 square miles of illegal logs in this state a small drop compared to the 270 square miles that are produced in this area of the country alone.

ABC's Sonia Gallegos reports from Tailandia, Brazil.