The UN is to publish a long-awaited report on the impact of the oil spills in Nigeria's Ogoniland region. The report took two years to produce and is controversial in part because it was funded by oil giant Shell. On Wednesday Shell accepted liability for two spills that devastated communities in 2008 and 2009. One community said it would seek hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. Shell said it would settle the case under Nigerian law. Nigeria is one of the world's major oil producers. After two years of research, and consultations with the concerned parties, the UN Environment Programme (Unep) is set to present its findings to Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan and the wider public. The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Lagos say it is already known that the report will look forensically at the impact of decades of oil spills on the communities who live in Ogoniland. But he says it is not known whether the report will attempt to allocate responsibility for the damage. "This is not an assessment designed to blame any particular stakeholder operating in Ogoniland," Unep spokesman Nick Nuttall told the BBC's Network Africa programme. "What we are indeed really seriously hoping is that this might actually close the chapter in what has often been a sad, tense and sometimes violent story, going back several decades. "We are hoping that this might build some sense of co-operation between all the various players in this part of the world." He also stressed that Shell's admission of liability for two spills had nothing to do with the Unep report. 'Livelihoods destroyed' Martin Day, a lawyer for the Bodo people of Ogoniland, on Wednesday told the BBC that much of the area had been devastated by oil pollution, meaning the local fishing community could no longer sustain their traditional livelihoods. "As a result of this spill, virtually all of them can no longer fish," he said. "They're left, many of them, in the most poverty-stricken way." Mr Day described the spill as one of the world's worst but said it had been ignored until his firm threatened to take Shell to court in the UK. This, he said, could set a legal precedent for other communities whose lives have been hit by Western firms. The environmental problems caused by the oil industry in Ogoniland were highlighted by the Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1995 by Nigeria's military government, sparking international indignation. The campaign forced Shell to stop pumping oil out of Ogoniland but it continues to operate pipelines in the region. A previous Unep report which blamed sabotage and theft by local people for 90% of the oil spills caused outrage among local activists. Ahead of the report, Mr Saro-Wiwa's Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) condemned it, saying it had not been adequately consulted. Our correspondent says that, with Shell funding the report, any mention of the oil giant in the findings will be closely scrutinised. Source: BBC