In this work, a numerical-experimental approach is used to study the elastic buckling of CLT panels. First, a finite element-based multi-scale model is developed to study the linear elastic buckling behaviour of CLT panels. The model incorporates wood’s most relevant microstructural features, such as the volume fraction of hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose, their mechanical and physical properties, microfibril angle, etc.; which are crucial to capture the inherent orthotropic nature of wood observed at the macroscopic level. Furthermore, the values of key microstructural parameters are determined through a parameter identification procedure, in which experimentally measured values of density and longitudinal Young’s modulus of radiata pine grown in Chile are used as target values. The model is successfully validated with results from buckling tests performed on CLT panels’ specimens with different thickness and slenderness ratios. The validation clearly shows the capability of the model to predict the buckling response of CLT panels. Finally, the model is used illustrate how parameters such as wood density and panel number of layers influence the buckling response of CLT panels.