[Objective] The soil and water conservation benefits of vegetation measures were analyzed under different land use types for the small catchment from the mountainous areas in the Central Yunnan Plateau to provide scientific basis and theoretical guidance for rational planting and improvement of land use status in the area. [Methods] The Jianshan River small catchment from Yuxi City of Yunnan Province was selected as the study area, and the rainfall data were collected from 2012 to 2022. The runoff and sediment yield characteristics and their influencing factors under different land use types (secondary forest, artificial forest, shrub land, cultivated land, economic fruit forest) were analyzed based on the runoff and sediment data from the runoff plots. [Results] ① The order of runoff from different land uses was in the order of cultivated land ＞economic fruit forest ＞shrub land ＞secondary forest ＞artificial forest, and the order for sediment yield was cultivated land ＞artificial forest ＞economic fruit forest secondary forest＞shrub land. The erosion resistance of cultivated land was worse than that of other land use types under the same rainfall conditions. ② A significant positive correlation was determined between sediment yield and runoff (p＜0.01). The sediment delivery lagged behind the runoff generation. Only when the runoff was ≥0.02 mm for the secondary forest, ≥0.46 mm for shrubland, ≥0.4 mm for artificial forest, ≥0.62 mm for economic fruit forest, and ≥0.09 mm for cultivated land could they carry sediment. ③ Runoff and sediment yield were significantly correlated with vegetation coverage, rainfall, soil capillary water-holding capacity, soil capillary porosity, and total soil porosity (p＜0.05). [Conclusion] This study has an important practical significance for scientifically setting up the layout of vegetation types, reasonably allocating the land planting pattern, and laying out the farmland consolidation.