Cranes are breeding on the ground and are therefore exposed to several threats. They have to protect themselves as well as their eggs and chicks against predators, like Red Fox and Wild Boars, but also against humans. Therefore, cranes build their nests in shallow, up to 30 cm deep water.

In some German states, like in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, disturbances at nesting sites of cranes are reduced due to special protected zones around the nesting sites defined by law. In other states, nesting sites of cranes are generally protected by law.

For keep these special protected zones around cranes nests working, it is necessary to know the exact positions of the crane nests. Therefore, Crane Conservation Germany together with a network of many volunteers is running a large-scale breeding site monitoring program to find these places. The position of the nests are annually reported to the state and county administrations for environment and forestry to fulfill the protected zones by law.