The United Nations World Heritage agency UNESCO is praising Belize for "visionary" steps to preserve the Belize Barrier Reef, also known as the Mesoamerican Reef.

UNESCO said "the level of conservation we hoped for has been achieved", and removed it from its list of endangered sites.

The Belize Barrier Reef is the second largest coral reef in the world, surpassed only by Australia's great Barrier Reef; it's home to many threatened species including marine turtles, manatees, and the American marine crocodile. 

UNESCO added the reef to its list of world heritage sites in 1996; but by 2009, the agency said the reef was in danger from the threat of increased oil exploration and put it on its list of endangered World Heritage Sites.

In 2012, environmentalists organized an informal referendum in which 96 percent of the participants voted against offshore oil activity.  "A visionary plan to manage the coastline was adopted in 2016," said the United Nations body.  Last year, lawmakers passed a landmark moratorium on oil exploration in Belizean waters, which makes it one of only a handful of countries in the world with such legislation.