• There are 2,522 Ramsar sites with an area of 257,317,367 ha;
• Hunting of various kinds is allowed on 1,074 Ramsar sites with an area of 177,037,899 ha;
• Africa has the largest area of Ramsar sites at 111,160,755 on which hunting is allowed on 92,157,500 ha, 52 per cent of total world Ramsar site area allowing hunting;
• Latin America (including the Caribbean) has the second largest area of Ramsar sites at 61,904,530 on which hunting is allowed on  49,219,750 ha, 28 per cent of total Ramsar area allowing hunting;
• For Africa and Latin America combined, Ramsar sites account for 80 per cent of total world Ramsar site area allowing hunting. That is an area of 141,377,250 ha;
• Europe has the most Ramsar sites at 1,133 of which 503 Ramsar sites allow hunting, Oceania (includes Australia) has the least at 86, of which 17 Ramsar sites allow hunting;
• North America has 222 Ramsar sites of which 63 Ramsar sites allow hunting on an area of 5,281,330; 5.7 per cent of total Ramsar area allowing hunting (note Canada has around 20 per cent of the Earth’s fresh water);
• Asia has 438 Ramsar sites of which 145 Ramsar sites allow hunting covering 11,374,880 ha, 6.4 per cent of total Ramsar sites area allowing hunting;
• Australia has 67 Ramsar sites covering 8,385,487 ha, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory allow hunting on Ramsar sites;
• In 2004, 133 new Ramsar sites were added of which 63 allow hunting, in 2023, 18 new Ramsar sites were added, of which 6 new Ramsar sites allow hunting (there is a general slowdown of adding new Ramsar sites but this is understandable given the number that already exist, this means that the task now is to improve existing Ramsar sites and that includes properly protecting biodiversity, particularly birdlife in these precious wetlands); and
• Share of Ramsar sites (number) allowing hunting by region / Africa, 54 per cent / Asia, 33 per cent / Europe, 44 per cent / Latin America and the Caribbean, 52 per cent / North America, 28 per cent / Oceania, 20 per cent.

It should be noted that some ‘hunting’ will be integrated with daily life as a food source and small takes, while other types of hunting, involving the mass slaughter of waterbirds for recreation, are likely to be very different in their scope and scale. Victoria, where Ramsar sites are subject to the mass killing of birdlife every year, kills a much greater number of birds than the other shooting states in Australia. Hunting in Victoria is so extensive that it dominates the purpose and use of Ramsar sites (signed game reserves, not Ramsar sites) in the state, having a significant impact on their ecological character.