I’m actually surprised nobody has posted anything about this online, but it’s more or less possible to write an IMAP proxy for Facebook using their API. Sure, you could not write a full-fledge IMAP implementation, but you could get it to perform the most basic tasks, like reading messages (and therefore also store them locally).
I got the idea of making an IMAP proxy (or bridge, parser or whatever you want to call it) back in in August when Facebook announced new API calls to access the mailbox. Upon reading them, I realized that it could be used for a lot new things, such as this. Since then, I’ve been waiting for someone take on the challenge. I’ve been keeping an eye open for a projects in this area, but haven’t seen any. Therefore, I thought I might at least raise some interest and perhaps someone will take on the challenge.

I know a lot of people are frustrated with Facebook’s lock-in when it comes to communication. Until today, all communication by email with Facebook was one-way. When someone post a message your wall or comment on a post, you receive an email notification (which can be configured). 

An article over at the Wall Street Journal titled