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n a much-anticipated move, Indonesia has become the world’s biggest sustainable palm oil producer for the first time on the back of greater certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) production, overtaking Malaysia, an international multi-stakeholder certification body says.

The number-one place was attributable to the surging number of local palm oil producers in joining the sustainable certification scheme, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Indonesia director Desi Kusumadewi said on Thursday.

As of the first quarter of this year, local growers generated around 2.71 million tons of CSPO, overtaking Malaysia — traditionally the largest CSPO producer — which produced 2.69 million tons, RSPO statistics show.

The rise in overall Indonesian output was derived partly from the production of a number of plasma growers, such as PT Inti Indosawit Subur, and core growers, such as Mina Mas Plantation, which produced a total of 300,000 tons of certified CSPO in March. Last year, the country’s total CSPO output was 2.3 million tons, or around 10 percent of its total palm oil production.

The cumulative CSPO output of RSPO members reached a total of 6.02 million tons at the end of March, coming from 1.22 million hectares of certified areas.

The body had earlier projected that Indonesia’s CSPO would double to 3.5 million tons, while its contribution to the global output would rise by 9 percent to 50 percent this year. Indonesian CSPO is expected to expand by 5.6 million tons in 2015, equal to one-fifth of total world output.

Sustainable palm oil production has been a major challenge for Indonesia as giant international buyers have required them to fulfill stricter sustainability standards both socially and environmentally.

In 2010, for example, several key buyers of local palm oil, including Nestlé and Unilever, suspended their palm oil purchases from Indonesia due to allegations that big plantations had committed deforestation in their massive expansions. Important buyers in European countries have also vowed to buy only sustainable palm oil starting in 2015.

The government has promised to address this problem by initiating a mandatory Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil program, as compared to the voluntary and market-driven RSPO. “This achievement is testimony that Indonesia is on the right path in contributing to international sustainability practices,” RSPO advisor Bungaran Saragih said on Thursday.

Saragih underlined the role of smallholders in Indonesia’s achievement and pointed out the significance of involving them in the transformation to sustainable practices. Last year, smallholders made up 38 percent of the country’s overall palm oil output, totaling 8.63 million tons. Edi Suhardi, the promotion chairman at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki), said that Indonesia’s newly attained status as a top producer of CSPO answered concerns over the inability of local growers to comply with RSPO certification’s stringent standards.

“Statistics show Indonesian oil palm plantations can comply with RSPO sustainability standards and we already have 18 plantations with sustainability certificates, higher than the 11 in Malaysia,” he said.