Abstract This study investigated how farm size, economic activity and social group are related to declared native vegetation cover in rural lands in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, evaluating implications to environmental public policies. We analyzed data from Rural Environmental Registry System of São Paulo (SICAR-SP). More than one third of the farms does not have declared native vegetation and half of them have up to 3% of native vegetation cover. Percentage of declared native vegetation cover tends to increase with farm size. However, only community lands and silviculture farms larger than 500 hectares showed most properties (more than 50%) with at least 20% of its area covered with native vegetation, as determined by the Brazilian Forest Act (federal law 12,651/2012). Our results suggest that, beyond property size, property social group and economic activity are also important aspects to be considered into public policy design aiming at environmental conservation in rural landscapes.