This crocodile was over-hunted for its valuable skin in the mid 20th century, but conservation measures have been put in place, it is reared in ranches and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists it as being of "Least Concern".
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The IUCN listed this crocodile as being "Vulnerable" in its Red List of Threatened Species in 1986 and 1988, but changed the assessment to "Least Concern" in 1996.
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It is included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
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The New Guinea crocodile was first described by the American herpetologist Karl Patterson Schmidt in 1928 as Crocodylus novaeguineae.