The rather inefficient production of agricultural raw materials on low-quality soils requires solutions enabling alternative uses of these soils. One of the ways to manage such soils is afforestation. However, this process cannot be performed on a random basis but it should favour sustainable development of rural areas, be in harmony with both rural inhabitants and nature and create spatial order. This paper presents an attempt to develop a method for qualifying land for forest development, and for setting a boundary between forest lands and utilised agricultural lands, depending on the intensity of potential of suitability for afforestation. While developing the method, the methodology assumptions were applied of the surface potential method developed by Borkowski [2001] and subsequently modified for the purposes of solving the presented problem.

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