New York: It was a drop of good news about the world's oceans: The Belize Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system in the Northern Hemisphere, has been removed from the United Nations list of endangered world heritage sites.

UNESCO, the world body's educational, scientific and cultural agency, said its heritage committee has voted to remove the reef from its list of threatened sites because it no longer faced immediate danger from development.

The Great Blue Hole, a collapsed underwater cave system at Lighthouse Reef in Belize,. Credit:Alamy

"In the last two years, especially in the last year, the government of Belize really has made a transformational shift," said Fanny Douvere, the coordinator of the marine program at UNESCO's World Heritage Centre.

UN officials initially cited "mangrove cutting and excessive development" as the main concern when the reef was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2009. They have also expressed concern about oil exploration. Since then, the government has imposed a moratorium on oil exploration around the reef and implemented protections for coastal mangrove forests.