Soil erosion is a serious environmental concern in which soil particles are detached and ultimately cause land degradation. This process occurs abundantly in watershed areas of Malaysia due to the exposure of heavy rainfalls throughout the year on steep slopes. It has been observed that geotextiles are effective in minimizing soil loss and runoff. In this study, coir geotextile was used to analyse its impact in terms of soil loss and runoff control at rainfall intensities of 40 and 60 mm/h, which are average rainfall intensities of Perak, Malaysia. The experiment was performed in the laboratory using sandy loam soil as a substrate under a rainfall simulator at a steep slope of a 30° angle. The decrease in soil degradation from treatment in comparison to the bare slope was observed to be very remarkable, i.e., up to 99 at rainfall intensities of 40 and 60 mm/h. Similarly, the effectiveness of coir geotextiles to minimize runoff was also found significant, approximately 4 at rain intensity of 40 mm/h and 7 at precipitation intensity of 60 mm/h. The study has effectively shown the ability of natural geotextiles for soil protection and runoff control. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.