The Scottish government is celebrating a key milestone in moves to make access to land more democratic in the country, as the first parts of the hotly debated Land Reform (Scotland) Act come into force on Tuesday.

Changes on the use of common good land, business rates for shooting and deerstalking, and deer management have all come into force as part of a new package of laws aimed at strengthening the say of local communities and tenants in land management. Other parts of the act – including those on agricultural holdings and on landowners engaging with communities – will begin later in the parliamentary session.

The provisions coming into force on Tuesday:

• End the exemption from business rates for shooting and deerstalking. This means these businesses will be subject to the same arrangements as others in Scotland from April 2017
• Give local authorities the power to change the use of some types of common good land if they apply for court consent
• Award new powers on the management of deer populations

On Tuesday, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, commented, “I am pleased to note the first parts of this act come into force. These first provisions mean that we will tax shooting and deer stalking businesses in the same way as other businesses in Scotland. They also modernise the law on common good land so councils can better use this resource. Finally, they create new powers to manage wild deer populations.”

The Act, which was passed with overwhelming support in mid-March, has proven controversial with Scotland’s landowners, who have claimed that some aspects violate their human rights.

Speaking at the Royal Highland Show last week, David Johnstone, chair of landowners’ organisation Scottish Land and Estates, which resisted a number of the changes ushered in under the act, said farmers and landowners should be aware that they face a “generational” change in their relationships with local communities.

He said, “One of the major conclusions to come from the land reform legislation was the need for landowners and land-based businesses to engage with communities in decisions relating to the use of land. It is clear, however, that many businesses are unaware of what that will mean for them. Much of the narrative around land reform centred on how estates would be affected, whilst the debate on agriculture focused on the tenanted sector.

“Many of our members are farmers and all owner-occupier and tenant farmers need to be aware that new community engagement measures will apply to them every bit as much as it will to the larger estates and this will be particularly relevant to farms on urban fringes where there is often a keen interest from community groups regarding leisure and access.

“In time, guidance will be produced by the Scottish Government which will explain what this will mean in practice and we would urge farmers to make their voices heard in this process.”

On Tuesday, Roseanna Cunningham said, “Today marks a vital next step in a wider and on-going programme of reform across Scotland. A land rights and responsibilities statement and a Scottish Land Commission will follow. We will also support landowners to better engage with communities and will shortly begin to implement the act’s agricultural holdings provisions.

“Implementing the act is not the end of our land reform journey but an important step in ensuring that land in Scotland delivers benefit for everyone.”

Tenant farmers in Scotland have been highly supportive of the new legislation, which the Tenant Farmers’ Association Scotland described as “An enormous step forward to bringing much needed change to the way in which Scotland’s land is owned and managed,” when the Act was passed in March.