@genaeleina: I do think saving the local bees would benefit humans more in the long run though. We don't need honey, but we need all the local plants that local bees help but honey bees don't.
but why have just one when we can have them both! native bee species are important and we do care about them. we just talk about honey bees so much because we can keep track of them in a way that isn't feasible with many native species, and honey bees are interconnected with the other bee species in an important way.
for example, the decline of honey bees, while worrisome by itself, also could mean that wild populations are declining. and these declines in native and honey bee populations could have similar causes (herbicides, some pesticides, etc.). so by raising awareness about the causes of the decline in the population of honey bees, we can help both kinds of bees because if we get rid of things that hurt honey bees, we also get rid of things that hurt native bees.
so that's why it's still important to try to save the honey bees (among other reasons). saving them helps us save all kinds of bees. there are some economic reasons why saving honey bees is integral as a means to save native populations as well (it's a lot harder to make governments care if no money is involved!), but those aren't really relevant at the moment.
so native bee species don't get mentioned as often, but we always keep them in our minds and hearts when we talk about ways to save honey bees. they're pretty connected, so it doesn't just have to be one or the other :)
