The External Review Panel is a group of conservation, forestry, Indigenous, academic, social, and organizational leaders that provide external opinions and advice to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) program on their sustainability standards. The Panel was formed in 1995, as the SFI program was being established, and has functioned since.

The Panel's mission is to provide an ongoing, independent, quality-oriented review of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Program’s sustainability standards, to advise the Board of Directors of SFI, Inc. on appropriate changes that may make the Program more successful in achieving its mission, and to insure that the Annual Progress Report is objective, meaningful, credible, and that it fairly states the status of implementation of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Program’s sustainability standards.