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Wetlands cover a small proportion (only 2–6% area) of the Earth's land surface. They are distributed in every continent and country except Antarctica (Tiner 2009). The total estimated area of wetlands over the globe was recorded in a range of 747–885 million hectares (Finlayson et al. 2001). Approximately, half of the global wetland area occurs between 50°N and 70°N latitude, one‐third between 20°N and 30°S latitude, and the remaining in the temperate zones (Tiner 2009). A total of 2386 wetlands are identified as Ramsar sites in 171 countries, which cover 253 771 669 ha area.